


A Truce, of Sorts

by gayneku



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Actually getting along, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, I cannot stress enough the lack of romance in this, LOVE that being an actual official tag, No Romance, The Almighty Tallest Being Assholes (Invader Zim), membrane is not the best dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-11-02 00:15:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20556839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayneku/pseuds/gayneku
Summary: When Zim gets an unexpected call, Dib finds out that they have more in common than he'd thought.





	A Truce, of Sorts

**Author's Note:**

> me, trying to sleep:  
my brain at 3 am: dib and zim are actually very similar in a lot of ways and could even be good friends if their goals weren't in complete opposition. in this essay i will
> 
> yes its 2019. yes im writing invader zim fic. we exist

It wasn’t unusual for Zim to miss class on occasion - even for a few days in a row. He’d be too busy working on his next evil plot, or even just forget to go. But when Dib hadn’t seen the alien in a full week, he started to get suspicious. It wasn’t just skool, either. He hadn’t seen Zim _ anywhere, _ even on his camera feeds. And Zim hadn’t answered the multiple times Dib had tried going to his house. There were only two explanations. One, that Zim was up to something _ big. _Or two… something had happened to him. 

Eventually, Dib had had enough of the suspense. He pounded on Zim’s door, and this time he didn’t let up until it opened, revealing GIR standing there. Before the little robot could say anything or stop him, Dib pushed his way inside, determined not to leave until he had found Zim and gotten an explanation out of him. 

He didn’t have to look far. Zim was sitting on the floor, back against the couch and knees pulled up to his chest, staring at seemingly nothing. It took Dib a minute to even realize that was him, with how unlike him it was. The alien barely even acknowledged Dib’s entrance. That was when Dib knew something was very wrong. 

“What - what _ happened? _ ” Dib asked, unable to keep the worry out of his voice. Not that he _ cared _if something bad happened to Zim. It would make his mission of keeping Earth safe much easier. He just… wanted to know if whatever was going on was a weakness he could exploit. Yeah. 

“Go away, Dibstink,” Zim said halfheartedly. Dib shook his head and turned to shut the door behind him. He wasn’t leaving until Zim told him what was wrong. 

“GIR, what happened?” He’d just have to go off of whatever coherent details he could get out of the robot, unless… 

“DO NOT tell him!” Bingo. “Fine. _ Fine. _ If you _ must _know. The Tallest called.” 

But weren’t those his leaders? That didn’t make sense. “Isn’t that a good thing?” Or, well, good for Zim at least.

The alien in question let out a bitter laugh. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Foolish human. At least _ you _have an excuse for believing that.” 

“Zim, what are you talking about? What did they _ say _?” 

“The _ truth, _ ” Zim snapped, the venom in his voice causing Dib to take a step back before realizing that, for once, it wasn’t directed at him. “They never saw me as an invader. They sent me here to _ get rid of me. _ They didn’t even think there _ was _ a planet here. This whole time I’ve been nothing but a _ joke _to them.” 

“But… what about your mission-”

“THERE IS NO MISSION!” Zim cut him off, then looked away, glaring at the wall. “There never was a mission.” 

Dib blinked once. Twice. Processed what he’d just heard. “You’re… giving up?” 

“Sure. Yes. Congratulations, you win. Now leave me alone.” 

There was no mission. Zim wasn’t going to try to take over the world anymore. Earth was _ safe. _ Dib waited for the relief, the euphoria, _ any _kind of positive emotion, but instead he just felt… empty. He’d always thought that when he finally beat Zim for good, he’d laugh at him, rub it in his face, but celebrating now felt wrong. Being here at all felt wrong. Seeing Zim like this, vulnerable, having just had his whole world torn down… being told by the people he looked up to that everything he’d worked for this whole time was meaningless… 

Well. That last part hit a bit too close to home. All Dib could really think about was how he would feel if Zim rubbed it in his face that no one ever believed him, that his own father thought he was insane.

Zim didn’t need that right now, even if they were mortal enemies. 

Instead, he walked over and sat down next to Zim. He didn’t look at the alien, though he did see Zim give him a confused look out of the corner of his eye.

“That’s - that’s awful of them,” he said. The intensity of Zim’s glare at that sentence forced Dib to look up at him, confused. Why would Zim be _ mad _about that?

“The mighty Zim does not need your _ pity, _fffffilthy human,” Zim spat, and Dib rushed to correct him.

“It’s not pity! I just… I get it. Not completely, obviously, but… why do you think I’ve always been so desperate to reveal you as an alien?” 

“To stop me from taking over the world, obviously,” Zim said immediately. Dib shook his head.

“That’s separate. I could stop you from taking over the world without that. I just… I’ve been saying for _ years _ that aliens and things exist and no one _ listens. _Gaz at least believes me about you but she doesn’t care. And she thinks the rest of it is stupid. Dad won’t listen no matter how much proof I show him and he thinks it’s stupid too. Did you know he thinks I’m crazy? And, I mean… well, you’ve seen how the kids at skool treat me.” 

Zim cocked his head. “Is that… not normal?” 

Dib couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that. Zim had been here for how long now? Over a year, and there was still so much about humans that he didn’t understand. “It’s not, no. They just… hate me. I just thought… if I could prove you were an alien, if I could get everyone to _ see, _maybe people would finally take me seriously for once.” 

He tilted his head to the side, letting it rest on one of his arms as he looked over at Zim. “So. Yeah. I get it, at least sort of. And… I’m sorry. Some people only see what they want to see, and there’s no changing their minds no matter what you do.” He huffed out a breath. He couldn’t believe he was _ actually _ doing this. Encouraging his enemy. But in the moment, it seemed like the right thing to do, if not the _ only _thing to do. “Anyway, they haven’t seen you since you came to Earth. You’ve kept me on my toes, that’s for sure. There’ve been a lot of times where I barely stopped you. So. Maybe they’re just idiots.”

He looked away, unable to meet Zim’s eyes. “At the very least, you’ve never been a joke to me.” 

There was near silence for what felt like several minutes, broken only by the sound of GIR humming happily at his TV show. Eventually, Dib chanced a look at Zim, his stomach twisting with nerves. Nothing like this had ever happened before with Zim, and Dib was suddenly, irrationally anxious that it had all been a plot to get Dib to feel sorry for him, or something. Or that Dib had somehow managed to say exactly the wrong thing.

All his worries faded in an instant, though, still there but no longer important as he met Zim’s eyes. It was just for a second before the Irken tore his gaze away and fixed it firmly on the wall to their left. But Dib… was almost positive he’d seen what looked like tears in Zim’s eyes. 

“Zim…?” Dib asked cautiously. He thought about reaching out to touch the alien’s shoulder, but decided against it. He had no way of knowing if that would help or just make things worse.

“Idiot human,” and it sounded like Zim was sniffling somehow, despite not having a visible nose. “Zim has no need of your sympathy.” 

“Of course not,” Dib said with a smile. He knew that was likely the closest he was going to get to a ‘thank you’ from Zim, but he was alright with that. He wasn’t sure if he should leave now - it felt a bit like he was… well… invading Zim’s privacy by staying - but the other spoke up again before he could move.

“People who refuse to believe something even when presented with proof are foolish and unworthy. Your human ‘father’ is no exception. As the only one deemed worthy of being the rival of the great and mighty Zim, you should aim higher than receiving their approval.” 

“... What?” Dib wasn’t sure he had heard that right. Had Zim actually just given him a compliment, in his own weird Zim way? 

“I’m _ not _saying it again,” Zim said, looking over at him solely to glare at him before looking away again. And yeah, okay, he should have expected that. 

Neither of them said anything else for a while, but this time the silence felt more comfortable, somehow. Almost companionable. Of course, eventually it was broken by GIR, throwing himself at Zim and loudly proclaiming his desire for tacos.

Zim made a grumbling noise, then stood up and pointed at Dib, his eyes narrowed. “If you speak of this to anyone, I will remove your human organs one by one and… and put them in a blender!” 

“Yeah, well - same back to you! …Minus the human, obviously.” 

“Ha! As if you have the technological capability to remove Zim’s organs!” 

They continued bickering as Dib got up and got ready to leave, but there was less hostility than usual in their words. And Dib realized this was probably the longest amount of time they’d gone without trying to kill each other. He knew that by tomorrow Zim might go back to trying to take over the world and they’d be back to their usual fighting, but for now…. For now, this wasn’t all that bad.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed! kudos and comments are always appreciated, and you can find me on tumblr at gayneku if you want. thanks for reading!


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